Outback and back to the dentist!

2/06/2012

As we have to be in Charters Towers on Monday for a , yet to be confirmed, dental appointment we thought we would head off into the bush for the week-end and have a look around. We have done all the touristy things in Charters Towers on previous visits so here we are 200k out in the bush at Burdekin Falls Dam. The road is sealed all the way in with hardly any traffic, being so quiet we saw plenty of wildlife. There were the usual Kangaroos, Wallabies, Whistling Kites and the exotic looking Eastern Rosellas (parrots) then a paddock of Buffalo, obviously farmed. A really interesting drive after the boredom of the last couple of days.
 The Burdekin Dam holds back Lake Dalrymple, the largest fresh water lake in Queensland, four times bigger than Sydney harbour apparently!
 We have pulled into the only campsite out here as free camping is not allowed for some obscure reason, it’s not like there is a shortage of space. Nevertheless it’s a really nice location and will be even nicer when they have finished the major refurbishments that are going on. Not sure exactly what they are doing but it’s a big job with lots of heavy plant about the place. Being week-end it is just sitting around being quiet. Jane thought she could hear a machine running constantly in the distance, it turned out to be a waterfall!! No turning that off.

 03/06/2012

 Burdekin Dam is really spectacular as it is full, millions of gallons of water flowing over the dam wall. All that water and it’s flowing out to sea some 100 K away. Never let me hear an Aussie whinge about drought ever again, it’s just not moved around to where it is needed. 

 We left our campsite with everything soaking wet, we had a thick mist and drizzle through the night but it’s to be expected as we are up in the hills. 

 We stopped off at the small town of Ravenswood (pop 150) yet another town that used to be big and busy when they found gold here. They still mine gold but on a small scale.

 The town of Mingela ( pop 20) boasts a typical outback pub so we couldn’t go past without a look and a couple of stubbies, no draught beer or fancy labels here, VB or XXXX Gold and that’s it. Outback pub is a nice way of saying tumble down shack that will probably blow away in the next wind. Tonight we are free camped by the Burbekin River a few miles out of Charters Towers ready for a trip into town to see the tooth fettler! 

  04/06/2012

 Following an early morning call to the dentist Jane got an appointment for tooth-hurty (2-30) and is now doing a very good impression of a hamster. It must have been quite traumatic as the tooth had to come out in the end, a bit at a time I believe. Anyway she is now convalescing with a couple of schooners having slurped her scrambled egg through a straw, while I tucked into my delicious chicken kiev. Naturally we haven’t done much today. Our free camp was a nice spot beside the river but the toilet needed a make over. We are back in Charters Towers tonight and tomorrow we hope to restart our original route plan. Just a matter of 250 K back to where we left off.

  

 05/06/2012

 Nothing seems to be going to plan right now as Jane was called back to the dentist because of some issue shown on the 3D x-ray. The dentist wants us to have a second opinion by a specialist who happens to be in Townsville, the complete opposite way from where we are travelling. They are trying for an appointment early next week so in the meantime we are determined to visit Porcupine Gorge, which of course is further away and along the same bloody road we came in on. 

 By the time we got away from Charters Towers it was too late to travel more than 100 K so we have pulled into the tiny town of Pentland for the night. Hopefully tomorrow we will get to see Porcupine Gorge.